Against Depressionby Peter D. Kramer is an astonishing volume. It is not your standard work on a mental disorder - in fact, the title is both misleading and exactly on point. Against Depression is not so much about explaining and treating depression as it is a polemic literally against depression. Kramer effortlessly skips across a wide variety of knowledge clusters to formulate his argument, as comfortable delving into artistic exegesis of paintings to literary analysis of any of a variety of authors - modern and past, and then again into the depths of history and the cutting edge of scientific discovery - especially in the arena of the biological and physiological nature of depression.

Synopsis:

Kramer argues that (a) humanity has a bias against the curing of depression because (b) we are afraid that some positive traits/activity will be lost if the depressed are cured (e.g. moody, brooding literary and artistic works; a deep understanding of pain; alienation (against tyranny); hope for a better world) but that (c) the result of curing depression would be a fuller humanity, not a lesser one.

Literary Merit:

Kramer’s work is a piece of art. Kramer shows an almost infinite capability to string together diverse topics and observations to make cognizant arguments. He is as comfortable discussing literary and artistic analysis as philosophy, psychotherapy, and the latest cutting edge science relating to the biological and physiological nature of depression. There is the unfortunate fact that someone’s editor didn’t do the best job proof-reading in two or three chapters¹. Besides this, Kramer’s writing is much more a philosophical work than anything else and it carries a philosopher’s tone. It is not the easy reading one has come to expect from lay-illness volumes - not only in its vocabulary but in the concepts it communicates and the time and space Kramer dedicates to these concepts. Still, the volume is extremely well-done and the task which Kramer has undertaken is a massive one, which we will discuss a little later, and as such one can lend little criticism against a volume that undertakes such as an impossible task.

Do We Fear The Cure?

Kramer is able to convincingly argue that we do fear a cure for depression. We believe that depression is part of our humanity - while it may not be in every person we cannot imagine some people without it. We wonder if by curing their depression we are in fact simply muting a portion of their personality, forcing everyone into a standard definition of humanity with little room for differentiation. Kramer reports repeatedly receiving the question, “What if prozac had been available to…?” (Nietzsche, van Gogh, Poe, Woolf). In other words, would we not lose the intellectual and artistic drive that this depression caused?²

But It Isn’t Honorable…

Kramer goes on to argue that we don’t give other diseases this distinction - we don’t suggest that individuals should keep their cancer or their heart disease. We don’t claim that there is something inherently valuable that adds to a person’s personality in the illness. Yes, there may be something that the individual learns, but this is not inherent in the illness itself. He suggests that we can ask the question if illness is every useful, but that this question cannot be posed to depression specifically, but must be posed across the board to all diseases. In other words, it is unfair to pick out one group of sufferers who we choose must suffer so that humanity can benefit from the lessons they learn, while all other sufferers are treated.

Kramer goes on to demonstrate from cutting edge research that depression does not advance a person’s abilities to think and create but rather dulls them and that the research indicates long-term, irreversible damage to the physiological structure of the brain is caused by depression.

A Better Future…

Kramer attempts to draw a picture of a future without depression and suggests that it would create a better humanity, not a shallower, more bland humanity. He suggests that the fullness of personality is restored in healing from depression, not caused by depression. That the characteristics we see in the depressed individual while sometimes admirable in and of themselves (e.g. unrest with the current life situation) are not valuable when they come from disease rather than a person’s own personality.

Conclusion…

A fascinating philosophical read that at its deepest asks what it means to be fully human and what role depression plays in encouraging or discouraging humanity, as well as evaluating our historical literary and artistic preference for works created by and about depressive themes to those of more brightness - and whether this indicates an inherent greater value in these works or a taint to humanity that we desire such.

The first book I read by Ted Dekker was Thr3e, which I enjoyed thoroughly from start to end. But then it felt like Dekker hit a dry spell. I read House which he had co-authored with Frank Peretti¹ and it disappointed thoroughly. House seemed to lack real story (as most horror does) and focused on an extremely fragmented narrative.²

After that it was Showdown and Saint (The Paradise Series), both of which I found somewhat boring - probably due to the imaginative storyline which felt just a bit too fantastical for my tastes. I picked up Obsessed but never was obsessed with it and haven’t finished it yet (not sure if I will). I’d heard good things about his Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, and White) but have avoided them out of my distaste for The Paradise Novels.

I stopped by the library recently and picked up two of his latest - Skin and Adam. I read Skin first. I was solidly disappointed yet again. I was tempted to just return Adam without even a second glance. I’m not trying to say Dekker’s books where awful - they weren’t - they were okay, good, average. They just weren’t great and I have a reading list a mile long. I decided to give it a try anyways - a few pages, then put it aside. Dekker grabbed me in the first several pages and wouldn’t let me go. Wow! By the end Charity had joined me and we were reading the story together. We both agreed that it was his most mature work to date. In fact, I would consider it a masterpiece in its genre.

Synopsis:

Daniel Clark works for the FBI and is hunting down a mysterious serial killer known only as “Eve” for taking innocent women and murdering them via a lethal biological injection. Clark has been hard on Eve’s trail for a long time and has lost his marriage over his obsession to catch Eve. Now it seems that Clark is finally getting close, but Eve outsmarts him again - shooting him in the head and killing him. Miraculously, Clark is resuscitated, but not without losing his memory of the killer’s face. The key to capturing this devious criminal is locked in his damaged mind.

Okay, so the storyline isn’t perhaps all that different from any number of other crime thrillers, or for that matter many of Dekker’s other stories - but the execution is flawless. Dekker interweaves the current narrative of the serial killer chase with fictitious newspaper articles written after the case describing the evolution of Alex Price (Eve) from a man into a killer.

There are only so many times one can read a crime thriller. They pretty much have the same narrative structure and storyline - bad guy kills people, bad guy gets caught. Flesh it out and you have your story. So how does one separate oneself from the masses? Dekker does it (and rightly so) by asking deeply philosophical (and theological) questions via his narrative³, specifically, “What is it that causes an individual to become a serial killer? Is one born as such or bred as such? Can a good man become a bad one?” This questions can be asked in a heavy-handed manner that demands a certain pathway be followed and fails to truly explore the questions and accept the unanswered dimensions, but Dekker succeeds in asking these questions in a way that feels real and authentic.

Conclusion:

If you are looking for a thrilling read, Adam is a great place to look. I have read few books that have grabbed me in such a firm way - and that I look back on with deep thoughts. I think the question of the darkest edges of humanity (e.g. serial killers) fascinates us because we believe at some point that it gives us insight into the whole of humanity. We want to understand how we can aberrate so far - we want to find an answer. Dekker encourages us to search our souls for the right answers.⁴

On Medication & Side Effects:

I do not want to discount the real concern that there are potential side effects from consuming medications that interact with our minds. Unlike many of our other organs which we understand to a great degree, the brain still resides as a major mystery and our treatments for aberrations in this mysterious and fascinating organ are far more primitive than any of us would desire. On the other hand, I’d like to share a few observations in my personal battle in deciding to consume medications:

• The damage from mental aberrations is certain, the damage from medications is small (or unknown). Peter D. Kramer in his book Against Depression
  writes, “In the aged brain, strokes cause more injury than they do in the young brain, and so do infections, blood clots, inflammation, low blood sugar, seizures–you name it. Prior exposure to stress (and to stress hormones) is the critical factor in this age-related vulnerability. More stress in the past makes an animal more brittle in old age. Both neurons and their protectors, glial cells, are at risk.” “Much of the damage done by stress hormones is to the stress-response system itself. The brain is a complex communications network, one cell reaching out to another. In the face of stress hormones, neurons lose connective wiring. In particular, cells in the hippocampus shed receptors for incoming messages about stress. The hippocampal cells also lose dendrites, the branches that connect a neuron to neighboring cells and transmit outgoing messages. Like overwhelmed people who withdraw from social contact, overwhelmed neurons in the hippocampus become isolated.” (pg. 117) Point being, while there may be unknown long-term side-effects to taking a medication there is no doubt about the health effects of untreated aberrations on the human mind.
• We have a certain fear of losing ourselves through medication. We ask ourselves, “are we just druggies, in need of a fix to make ourselves feel good?” We ponder whether there is not some good side to our illness.¹ We fear that society would lose a certain portion of itself without those who mentally struggle. We ask what would have history been like if individuals like Martin Luther, Picasso, van Gogh, Kierkegaard, George Fox, and so many others of our great minds had not suffered?² This is the question, but we are simply asking it the same way. One does not lose depth without disorder. When one removes the disorder one finds greater ability to tap and manage depth. The disorder disables the individuals, removing capacity to innovate, it does not add to it.
• Yet, there is still a concern about the medication. There is no doubt that medication can affect us in ways we do not expect - in fact covering over portions of what we consider our personality. Sometimes the side effects are the exact opposite (though only in a very small minority) of what is expected - instead of relieving depression or anxiety it increases it. This is why I suggest the involvement of a community in the process is essential. At the most basic one’s psychiatrist, but preferrably including friends and family. These individuals can objectively help you understand the effects of the medication on your daily behavior and assist in determining whether the medication is allowing the real you to shine out or masking it (the latter is marginal, but possible).
• We assume that medical illness is a choice we face in isolation, but it is not. While we assume that refusing treatment is solely our suffering we cannot underestimate the impact of our suffering on others. The lack of energy we feel translates into a lack of energy for friends and family. The sudden bouts of rage we battle flies out at the most uncomfortable times - at work, with our wives or children. Our illness is real and affects those around us. If our worldview is twisted, we impart this twisted worldview to those we interact with to some extent. We must recognize the extent of others suffering.
• We oftentimes assume that our suffering isn’t that bad. We are resilient people in many senses. Many of us operate on a decently functional level without medication. Especially as adults we learns methods of coping with our foibles. But there is a great difference between functionally nominally well and functioning to one’s true human potential.³ Some of us have been suffering for so long that we don’t know what it is like to be free. Even after a short while in the grip of a mental illness it feels natural, as if this is the way things should be. Yet I have experienced (and proudly bear witness to) becoming more myself (and it is the self I strove for but could not be) when accepting and receiving treatment.

What About Them Psychologists/Counselors?

There is a fear of psychologists/counselors that permeates many and especially amongst those who would consider themselves Evangelical Christians (of which I consider myself a constituent). The fears are not entirely unfounded. There have been individuals who have seen a counselor/psychologist who provided bad advice and have changed their lives for the worse because of this advice⁴. But I would suggest that we need not fear the psychologist (or counselor) but instead the uncritical thinking and lack of contextual support that allows illegitimate beliefs to grow. In my opinion, a counselor is an individual to dialogue with about our lives and whom we allow to speak honestly and openly with us about the issues they see in our lives.⁵ When we give someone permission to explore our life and philosophy this does not mean we give them permission to determine our beliefs. We can and should critically evaluate each suggestion for its truthfulness. Additionally, I would suggest that counseling becomes much safer when one uses it as a primary means of exposing the difficulties in ones life but then also utilizes a secondary support system to give you context to the recommendations and issues raised. While many people are not prepared to provide the depth of inquiry and feedback that a counselor can, many of them are willing to discuss with you individual subjects which the psychologist raises. Thus the danger of psychology is not that there may be false beliefs but that we uncritically and without contextual relational support accept such beliefs. No individual has perfect knowledge, every encounter is a mixture of truth and error, this is true even for professionals. We must be willing to battle for truth on our turf, not simply accept the pronouncements of others. That said, having someone challenge our belief system can help us revise and strengthen our belief systems in ways that allow us to live better lives.⁶

Are We Willing to See Ourselves?

When it really comes down to it, my argument is not so much particularly for psychological medications and treatment - but for the willingness to explore ourselves, and not solely internally. You can sit down and talk with a psychiatrist and a psychologist without taking medication and without accepting their advice. But perhaps it is worthwhile to ask the question? To open ourselves to the possibility? To ask someone else, “Do you hurt this way every day? Do you feel this anxious? Do you have this much trouble sleeping?” So often we assume our suffering is normative, when it is anything but.

Please feel free to give me some feedback on this post. I know this post has been much more ideological than many others I have posted but I want to engage you in discussion about this. I am at much risk of mixing truth with error as any other fallible human being. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why God said after creating everything else “good” that “it is not good for man to be alone.”⁷

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD):

According to the National Institute of Mental Health this disorder affects 2.2 million U.S. adults each year. The NIMH defines OCD as, “…an anxiety disorder and is characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and/or repetitive behaviors (compulsions). Repetitive behaviors such as handwashing, counting, checking, or cleaning are often performed with the hope of preventing obsessive thoughts or making them go away. Performing these so-called ‘rituals,’ however, provides only temporary relief, and not performing them markedly increases anxiety.”

Recommended Reading:

• Rapoport, Judith L.  The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Washing: The Experience and Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Signet, 1991. 304 pp. My Comments: This book is perhaps the best volume I have ever read on OCD. Unfortunately, it is nearly eighteen years old. Here’s hoping for an updated edition in the near future! Still, its case studies are priceless in helping both those who suffer and those who don’t understand the disorder. Not to mention that Rapoport is one of the definitive experts in the field.
• Crawford, Mark.  The Obsessive-Compulsive Trap: Real Help for a Real Disorder. Regal Books, 2004. 168 pp. My Comments: This volume is much smaller and more recent than Rapoports’ but lacks the depth of case studies Rapoport’s book provides. Still, it covers most of the bases and is a quick read. It is written from a distinctly Christian perspective.

Attention Deficit (Hyperactive) Disorder:

ADHD is perhaps one of the more common disorders and a polarizing disorder. There is a significant number of individuals who challenge the existence of ADHD, believing it to be an excuse for behavioral and social issues. That said, it affects between 3-5% of children and over 4% of adults according to the NIMH and is Wikipedia describes it as, “is characterized by a persistent pattern of impulsiveness and inattention, with or without a component of hyperactivity.”

Recommended Reading:

• Hallowell, Edward M. and John J. Ratey. Delivered from Distraction: Getting the Most out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder. Ballantine Books, 2005. 416 pp. My Comments: This volume is extremely readable and informative. Written by two M.D.’s who suffer from ADHD the volume speaks from both personal and clinical experience and covers all aspects of the disorder.
• Hallowell, Edward M. and John J. Ratey. Driven To Distraction : Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood. Touchstone, 1995. 336 pp. My Comments: The original classic volume from Hallowell and Ratey on ADD. If you only want to read one book I’d recommend Delivered from Distraction, if you want to add a second…read the original volume.

Concluding Note:

Recognizing and dealing with what is wrong with ourselves can be huge. It can help us function at a higher level and enjoy life more. It can also be useful when we see these sorts of disorders in others. It can give us a sense of empathy that we might not otherwise be able to experience. The suffering caused by mental disorders while not visible is tremendous, and working together we can significantly increase our own and others overall health by getting the medical help we need and being there for one another.

To be mentally ill is not always (or even generally) to have a complete break with reality. Individuals such as myself (and many others) make up the majority of sufferers from mental illness. We function rather normally on a day-to-day basis. The truth is that mental illness can be extremely subtle and yet heavily damaging. As leaders we need to increase our ability to see the subtle signs of mental illness and help those we love and lead get the assistance they need from professional practitioners. This is not about taking someone who is non-functional and bringing them to a point of functioning, rather it is about taking individuals who are functioning (perhaps ourselves) and removing (or smoothing out) the roadblocks that hinder them.

Will you really meet that many mentally ill individuals? Absolutely. According to the National Institute of Mental Health over 25% of adults in the United States are suffering from a mental disorder right now. That is nearing 60 million people in the United States alone. Granted, it is around 1/4th of this number who suffer from severe mental disorders in the U.S., but this means that around 1 out of 4 individuals have at least a mild mental illness and 1 out of 16 have a serious mental illness.

In this series of blog posts my intentions is to point to some general resources on mental health that can serve as quick primers on the nature of mental disorders as well as specific resources on the most common mental disorders. I hope you will consider joining me in studying and understanding this rapidly expanding field so we can better love and lead those around us. I especially urge religious leaders to become involved in this study. As leaders we must work on our ability to differentiate spiritual and physical ailments and assist our congregants in receiving the correct assistance.

Sometimes the problem with accomplishing a charitable objective is not convincing people to support an endeavor but simply making them aware of the need and how they can be a part of the solution¹. I believe this is the case with the World Community Grid and I want to share with each of you about this exciting project that meets real needs and that each of us can painlessly participate in.

The Problem:

Humans cannot perform the calculations fast enough for many of the massive scientific and medical experiment currently in process. We need the assistance of computers to perform these massive calculations faster and reliably. Unfortunately, super-computers with massive processing power are in limited supply and expensive to either build or rent. This places a strain on medical and scientific researchers as they must secure extra funds or wait for computing resources to become available.

The Solution:

The World Community Grid allows individuals to install an application on their computer that essentially allows their computer to become part of a massive super-computer. Already hundreds of thousands of individuals participate, and well over a million machines are involved. Already we have contributed 195,000 years of processing power to various projects.

The Questions:

• Will my computer run slower? Yes and no. In a strictly literal sense, it will - because its doing something else in the background. But in a realistic sense, there are generally no tangible changes in system performance. The software automatically reduces its resource utilization when you are actively utilizing the computer².
• What sort of projects are these researchers working on? Cures/treatments for cancers, AIDs, muscular dystrophy, STDs, malaria, and flavivirus infections (e.g. West Nile encephalitis and yellow fever). The projects also model climate predictions and look for effective food hybrids (e.g. a more nutritious rice).

Conclusion:

Go to WorldCommunityGrid.org and sign up for a free account. Its easy, fun, and really makes a difference. In the U.S. alone we have a population of well over 200 million. Right now there are less than one million participants and we are already accomplishing amazing things. Join us for this exciting journey! If you have questions or encounter problems please enter them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer each one.

Hotel Rwanda - PG-13 - Released: 2004 - Tells the gut-wrenching story of the Rwandan genocide and one man who was willing to stand up to the oppression - while we as the world stood quiet. What is the role of the United States or any country in the world, especially when it involves genocide? This film brings that question straight into our hearts and refuses to let us go until we have wrestled deeply with it.

Something the Lord Made - NR - Released: 2005 - Dr. Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman) hires an African-American carpenter, Vivian Thomas (Mos Def), to assist him around his medical offices. Vivian shows great ingenuity and becomes the forerunner in a partnership between Blalock and Thomas that lead to radical, life-saving medical innovations. All this occurs against a background of racism in which Thomas is unable to take credit for his own work due to his skin color and lack of a medical degree. An exciting film about the triumph of man over illness and oppression.

Life Is Beautiful - PG-13 - Released: 1998 - Roberto Benigni is an absolute genius. He creates and stars in this amazing film that does the impossible - creates a respectful and heart-warming comedy of the Holocaust during World War II. I know, it sounds impossible, but you will have to see this absolutely marvelous film to understand it.

The Passion of the Christ - R - Released: 2004 - Mel Gibson’s amazing vision of the torture and crucifixion of Christ. A painful, beautiful, disturbing portrayal of what Jesus suffered for the sake of mankind.

We Were Soldiers - R - Release Date: 2002 - Mel Gibson strikes again with this gritty film about the Vietnam War. Based on the true story of the 7th Cav. (carried by helicopters, not horses) this film is an epic solely on its war film merits alone. However, the reason it makes this list is not for its non-stop action but the interweaving of the stories of the wives who were left at home and the anguish they face waiting the news whether their husband has joined the every growing list of killed in action.

Awakenings - PG-13 - Release Date: 1990 - Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro star in this marvelous true story of one doctor who dared to find a cure for individuals left comatose for decades by encephalitis. The story is encouraging and heartbreaking and challenges us to remember the potential we have to discover new cures and better ways of living.

Luther - PG-13 - Release Date: 2003 - Martin Luther was one of the most significant leaders of a movement known as the Reformation which birthed the division between Protestant and Catholic churches. Luther’s personal struggle with faith and battle to reform the excesses of the church are marvelously displayed and recitations of some of Luther’s most famous words by Joseph Fiennes are enough to send shivers down the spine.

Caveat: I am recommending not only books that I believe are right on but also books which I believe are so thought provoking that the challenges to our thinking are worth the risks. The reader of the book must take it upon himself to wrestle with the fallible interpretations of like offered by each author.

• Metamorpha: Jesus as a Way of Life - Wow. A supremely readable, yet deeply intelligent primer on the Christian faith. Written by a young voice (Kyle Strobel) it manages to embrace the best of real Christian spirituality while challenging the separatism currently occurring in churches between the young and old.
• Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist - I am a voracious reader and yet it took me well over a year to read this book. John Piper, without a doubt, is one of the most profound voices within modern Christianity. Every page of this book is packed with wisdom, Scripture, and the voices of our past. This book is readable - but expect to take it a few pages at a time - there is just too much to process on every single page. Piper’s essential argument is that man was designed for pleasure - but that that pleasure is to be found in God.
• Inside Out - Larry Crabb is a controversial figure within Christianity. As a psychologist he finds many Christian doors closed. His background and admiration for Freud doesn’t help anything. That said, he has made a sincere effort to understand how the science of the mind fits into the Scriptures. Most won’t agree with everything he suggests in this book, but everyone will be challenged by the heavy emphasis he places on the reality of our brokenness as human beings and the need for a supernatural healing.
• The Purpose Driven® Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? - Rick Warren and Saddleback Church have become extremely influential in American Evangelical Christianity. His Purpose Driven Church book has formed the basic plans for many churches around the nation - and his youth pastor Doug Field’s book Purpose Driven Youth Ministry has done the same for youth ministries. Now Warren has released what may be considered his basic philosophy of life. Written in a forty day devotional format the book offers Warren’s understanding of the biblical worldview and how it affects our lives.
• Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth - Richard Foster comes from a Quaker background and is a continuous student of the historical methods of connecting with God spiritually. He helps us understand the way that spirituality integrates into our lives - more than just over prayers before meals. He divides the practices we can use to connect to God into three sections - inward (meditation, prayer…), outward (simplicity, solitude…), and corporate (confession, worship…). A great starting point for experiential Christianity.
• A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished CHRISTIAN - Yeah, the book has a really long title, and it is a bit dry at times with lots of footnotes. But Brian D. McLaren is one of the leading thinkers in the emerging church movement and is important to understand whether you agree with his theology or not - and he makes an awful lot of good points, even if you don’t buy the whole load.
• How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth - I’m sure glad I’m not the only one who struggles with understanding Scripture. This extremely readable and informative little volume by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart is a must-read for new and experienced students of the Bible alike.
• The Story of Christianity - I must admit that Justo Gonzalez is one of my heroes. This book - originally two separate volumes - is a monumental achievement in itself. Numbering around a thousand pages it was an extremely readable and balanced history of the Christian faith from start to present. I would suggest that having at least a rudimentary understanding of Christian history can profoundly affect (in a positive way) our understanding of the gospel and interaction with fellow believers as well as the world at large.
• American Evangelical Story, The: A History of the Movement - Douglas A. Sweeney offers a readable and fairly comprehensive history of American Evangelicalism. A must read for evangelicals.
• The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict Fully Updated To Answer The Questions Challenging Christians Today - Josh McDowell’s extensive research into the Christian faith in an attempt to establish an apologetic defense. Essentially, an encyclopedia on the historical/scientific/evidentiary reasons for belief. Covers topics such as the biblical text, the historical Jesus, and biblical criticism.
• Life Application Study Bible NLT - Whether one gets a Life Application Study Bible is not so much my concern - though there are a number of useful maps, charts, study notes, and etc. in the Life Application Study Bible…But I do think a New Living Translation (NLT) Bible is an excellent addition to any library. I am assuming one already has a word-for-word literal translation such as the NASB, NIV, or NKJV. These Bibles are excellent for understanding the minutaie of the text, but I find the NLT provides a more readable translation for devotional reading. Sure, when one hits a controversial passage pull out your NASB and lexicon and dive into the words and commentaries…But for the larger context/story flow I personally enjoy the NLT.

On July 8th, 2008 I wrote a post raving about Verizon FiOS, a high-speed fiber-to-home internet solution that has clearly kicked the butt of all the competition on a performance/cost basis. I’d been using the service for around two years at that juncture. On October 20th, 2008 I wrote another post, this time chronicling the extreme distress I was experiencing with my Verizon FiOS connection. It is now November 5th, 2008 and my issue is still not resolved. The problem began on 10/16 and continues to the present. I have spent 10+ hours on the phone with Verizon over a period of days and have opened multiple tickets including PADQ01JC660 and PADQ01KD8X (which was closed for an unknown reason) and now PAFS010562.

The Problem:

Verizon’s first tier technical support is decent, they can fix 99% of mom and pop problems. This means if you have a standard problem (e.g. router died or needs to be rebooted, you need to enter a password, ip needs to be renewed, etc.) you’ll most likely have no problem getting rapid support. The issue is with escalation. After the first level of support their are “Network Technicians”, these are the people who are supposed to analyze and resolve complex issues. Unfortunately, multitudinous experiences indicates:

• Network Technicians do not communicate concerning tickets.
• Network Technicians do not perform necessary troubleshooting on tickets.

I should note, as a Network Engineer, I understand some of the dilemma faced by network technicians. First, one is constantly bombarded by a large number of false positives. People will insist they have a problem that is your fault when it is their own. Second, network technicians generally tend to enjoy working on problems more than communicating about problems. Okay, this is natural…but this has been ridiculous. Ignore it once, okay - not the best idea but understandable. Ignore it twice - okay, bad idea. Ignore it three (four, five) times and now we are getting to the point of inciting righteous anger on the part of the consumer.

The Resolution:

I can’t remark on the specifics of resolving this issue, since I am not within the Verizon NT group, but I will comment generally on ways to resolve this sort of consumer abuse:

• Ensure network techs. are not overtasked. A network tech. will let “questionable” problems fall through the cracks when he is over-engaged by “real” problems.
• Enable a linking method for tickets and an analysis system that will detect repeat callers and allow for appropriate escalation to resolve the issue.
• Offer a web-based ticketing system with tickets automatically visible via phone call. Allow consumers to view and respond to ticket modifications.¹
• Its all about communication. If a network tech. doesn’t believe its a real issue he needs to communicate this back to the first tier tech., and the first tier tech. needs to talk to the consumer more…But in no case should a ticket simply be dropped.

UPDATE 11/07/08: Well, life is back to normal…after around two weeks. I called in and told them I would remain on the line until the NT was available. They told me he would call back within 48 hours. I insisted on knowing what the tech. thought was the problem. The NT said he would call back in four hours. I still insisted on knowing what the tech. thought was the problem, this didn’t get very far…I concluded by asking the first tier helpdesk to inform the NT that I was placing all Verizon related tickets online and that if this news made it into mainstream press the NT could be assured Verizon higher-ups would be looking for someone to sacrifice. I received a call-back within an hour or two. The problem had been resolved. It had been an issue with the configuration of their Juniper switches…I am happy now but think that my suggestions above still carry significant weight. It shouldn’t have taken two weeks to make a configuration change.

Image thanks to striatic’s generous creative commons.

On Thursday, 10/16/08 I tried to log onto the internet. No connection. Between 10/16-10/17 I would make seven major phone calls to Verizon in an attempt to resolve this issuing totaling approximately 250 minutes (over 4 hours). Verizon for an unknown reason³ disconnected my FiOS service⁴. Okay, no big deal - reestablish the service⁵. They create an entirely new account and inform me at the same time that I can no longer have my less-expensive 5 Mbps/2 Mbps subscription but must upgrade to a 10 Mbps/2 Mbps. Again, not a huge deal - $10/mo. - but doesn’t make an unhappy customer happy when you screw up and then demand he pay a higher price for the service.

The installation was supposed to be completed by the end of that day. At the end of the day I called back, ohh - somebody screwed up the order. I would talk to approximately three people between that call and calls the following day attempting to get the order straightened out. They placed at least two new orders and finally one of them kicked through. In all, it was around 48 hours without internet access.

Then the internet access finally returned. Great! I’m a happy man…Till its slower than DSL. I run some speedtests. Yup, certainly slower than DSL - and ping tests against Google/Yahoo’s servers revealed that occasional timeouts where occurring and response times were slow (over 100 ms typical). More phone calls to Verizon⁶. Yes, my service is now working. No, the service is very slow. How do I know? Well, I used a bandwidth test. Run through the normal diagnostics - resetting wireless router, plugging directly into FiOS connection, resetting the FiOS box outside my house - sending the issue over to a tech. to look at. The pings drop down - Google/Yahoo now in the 10 ms range, but the speed is still horrific. Maybe its the bandwidth tester - well, I trust Speakeasy’s test but, sure, let’s try Verizon’s. Verizon shows even more dismal speeds. Ahh, forget Verizon’s speed test let’s try speedtest.net. Now if I go to the server in Newark I get 10 Mbps, but almost everywhere else its slow as anything. Will I run the FiOS settings optimizer⁷? Sure. Still nothing. I’m tired, I’m going in circles. I talk to a supervisor. Same thing. They want to send me a new router. Sure, you can do that, but since I’m plugging directly into the connection and bypassing the router it’s not the router. Okay, we’ll have a technican look at it. Great - never hear from them again.

The connection has slowly improved. Dropped packets have decreased, but overall the network is slow. Streaming video doesn’t work well - unless you happen to hit 1% of the servers that seem to be operating on Verizon’s network at high speeds.

So, that is my situation as of today. Two days without internet - now extremely slow internet. Calling into technical support is an exercise in frustration. I can’t speak to someone who understands the problem is a technical issue on Verizon’s side. My guess? Either my circuit settings where entered wrong or they have a bad router somewhere along the line. 99% of my traffic is going through the bad router - if I happen to hit a server that takes another route (doesn’t use that router) then I get good speeds.

Anyone else having this problem? The phone support from Verizon has improved in that I don’t spend 15 minutes dialing through automated voice support - but the help desk support doesn’t have a clear escalation path beyond themselves and so I am at an ends. Vague promises of a “network tech.” looking into it and no followup leaves me with little hope of a long-term solution.

UPDATE:

Spoke to a technician at Verizon who knew what I was talking about and again submitted a ticket to the network tech. guys. His name was Dan…If any Verizon people do read this, he needs a promotion - his networking knowledge is far beyond most of his peers. In any case, he agrees the issue is one with the route being taken to reach the final website. To give everyone an idea here is a tracert to google.com (note the length of the route, its extremely, ridiculously long):

<!– @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –>

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms Wireless_Broadband_Router.home [192.168.1.1]
2 4 ms 4 ms 4 ms L100.FTTP-02.PHLAPA.verizon-gni.net [68.238.240.1]
3 7 ms 6 ms 7 ms G1-0-881.LCR-08.PHLAPA.verizon-gni.net [130.81.110.108]
4 7 ms 6 ms 7 ms P14-2.LCR-02.STTLWA.verizon-gni.net [130.81.29.6]
5 7 ms * 7 ms 0.so-6-0-0.XL2.PHL6.ALTER.NET [152.63.3.81]
6 13 ms 12 ms 11 ms 0.so-6-0-0.XL4.IAD8.ALTER.NET [152.63.0.130]
7 13 ms 11 ms 12 ms 0.ge-3-3-0.BR2.IAD8.ALTER.NET [152.63.40.229]
8 22 ms 49 ms 99 ms 204.255.169.2
9 88 ms 86 ms 87 ms tbr1.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.123.8.106]
10 580 ms 576 ms 724 ms cr1.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.16.89]
11 580 ms 484 ms 96 ms cr2.phlpa.ip.att.net [12.122.4.53]
12 115 ms 97 ms 96 ms cr2.cl2oh.ip.att.net [12.122.2.209]
13 87 ms 87 ms 86 ms cr1.cl2oh.ip.att.net [12.122.2.125]
14 88 ms 87 ms 86 ms cr1.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.2.205]
15 99 ms 99 ms 99 ms cr1.st6wa.ip.att.net [12.122.31.162]
16 88 ms 86 ms 87 ms tbr1.st6wa.ip.att.net [12.122.23.130]
17 87 ms 86 ms 87 ms gar8.st6wa.ip.att.net [12.122.111.17]
18 98 ms 96 ms 117 ms 12.89.209.14
19 111 ms 96 ms 97 ms 209.85.249.32
20 103 ms 98 ms 89 ms 66.249.95.208
21 91 ms 92 ms 91 ms 72.14.233.37
22 92 ms 92 ms 104 ms 216.239.48.143
23 93 ms 106 ms 117 ms 209.85.251.125
24 102 ms 94 ms 104 ms 74.125.31.2
25 105 ms 104 ms 104 ms cg-in-f99.google.com [209.85.171.99]

Unfortunately 99% of the sites I visit appear to be routing in this same, obtuse method. 1% take a different router and operate at blazing fast speeds.